Excel vs Google Sheets comparison - Business Scenario Comparison

Scenario Mode

👤 Your Role: You are a business analyst at a consulting firm.

📋 Request: Your manager wants a clear comparison of Excel and Google Sheets features based on company usage data.

📊 Data: You have data showing monthly usage hours, number of users, and key features used in both Excel and Google Sheets across different departments.

🎯 Deliverable: Create a summary report comparing Excel and Google Sheets usage and features with formulas calculating totals, averages, and highlighting the most used features.

Sample Data

Department	Tool	Users	Monthly Usage Hours	Key Feature Used
Finance	Excel	15	120	Pivot Tables
Finance	Google Sheets	5	40	Collaboration
Marketing	Excel	10	80	Charts
Marketing	Google Sheets	12	100	Collaboration
Sales	Excel	8	70	Formulas
Sales	Google Sheets	10	90	Collaboration
HR	Excel	6	50	Data Validation
HR	Google Sheets	7	60	Collaboration

1

Step 1: Calculate total users for Excel.

=SUMIF(B2:B9,"Excel",C2:C9)

Expected Result

39

2

Step 2: Calculate total users for Google Sheets.

=SUMIF(B2:B9,"Google Sheets",C2:C9)

Expected Result

34

3

Step 3: Calculate total monthly usage hours for Excel.

=SUMIF(B2:B9,"Excel",D2:D9)

Expected Result

320

4

Step 4: Calculate total monthly usage hours for Google Sheets.

=SUMIF(B2:B9,"Google Sheets",D2:D9)

Expected Result

290

5

Step 5: Calculate average usage hours per user for Excel.

=SUMIF(B2:B9,"Excel",D2:D9)/SUMIF(B2:B9,"Excel",C2:C9)

Expected Result

8.21

6

Step 6: Calculate average usage hours per user for Google Sheets.

=SUMIF(B2:B9,"Google Sheets",D2:D9)/SUMIF(B2:B9,"Google Sheets",C2:C9)

Expected Result

8.53

7

Step 7: Identify the most used key feature for Google Sheets.

=INDEX(E2:E9,MATCH(MAX(COUNTIF(E2:E9,"Collaboration")),COUNTIF(E2:E9,E2:E9),0))

Expected Result

Collaboration

8

Step 8: Create a summary table showing total users and total usage hours for each tool.

Use SUMIF formulas from steps 1-4 to fill the table.

Expected Result

Excel: Users=39, Hours=320; Google Sheets: Users=34, Hours=290

Final Result

Tool          | Total Users | Total Usage Hours | Avg Hours/User
-------------------------------------------------------------
Excel         | 39          | 320               | 8.21
Google Sheets | 34          | 290               | 8.53

Most Used Feature in Google Sheets: Collaboration

✓Excel has slightly more users (39) than Google Sheets (34).

✓Excel has higher total usage hours (320) compared to Google Sheets (290).

✓Average usage hours per user is slightly higher in Google Sheets (8.53) than Excel (8.21).

✓Collaboration is the most used feature in Google Sheets across departments.

Bonus Challenge

Create a chart comparing monthly usage hours by department for both Excel and Google Sheets.

Show Hint

Use a clustered column chart with departments on the X-axis and usage hours on the Y-axis, with separate bars for Excel and Google Sheets.